Environmental effects are something you’re going to have to get your feet wet in if you have any aspirations for filmmaking. If a scene requires rain, it’s not practical to wait around for the weather to fit your needs. This is where creativity is needed even more in filmmaking. Filming in its essence is an illusion. You pretend that the world you create is real. That goes the same for practical effects: they all contribute to selling the illusion.
Computer generated effects in movies have come a long way. What used to take hours to render back in the ‘80s takes seconds to render with today’s technology. Filmmakers are now able to create things not possible 20 years ago. But of course, this is hardly realistic for the average filmmaker. Even basic programs like Adobe Aftereffects cost $20 a month, and requires extensive training and experience if you even hope to create something spectacular. So today, I’m going to explore different ways to create environmental effects without a computer.
#1 RAIN
I mentioned this one above because it was something that always awed me as a kid. How the heck did the movies make rain? My first thought was putting your thumb over a hose, letting it spray over the scene in question. If you’re looking for a quick solution, this works fine. Nobody’s going to think any less of you, because it’s understandable. It’s been used in visually stunning shots before, and was even brought into the film’s story in Awolnation’s Sail Unofficial Music Video:
Use a nozzle for different types of rain. Use a high nozzle or a ladder to move the source high and out of the shot. Honestly, this is one of the easier environmental effects to pull off.
A common problem, however, is that it’s often difficult for cameras to pick up raindrops. Often, the light reflecting through the drops won’t be picked up. Fortunately, it is possible to use lighting to expose the rain. This technique has been done for more than half a century, most famously in Stanley Donen’s Singing in the Rain(1952).
According to Donen, when they filmed the rain with a frontlight only, the rain would disappear on camera. To combat this, they placed a backlight to light up the raindrops. This made the individual raindrops visible on camera, albeit rather milky in appearance.
Another tip would be to film on overcast days or in the evening so that the light looks stormy. If mother nature isn’t on the same schedule you are, you can fiddle with the color and saturation in most post-production software.
#2: SNOW
Now this is where it gets a little ugly. Back in the black-and-white era, when you could get away more with prop substitution, directors could get away with anything light colored. In It’s a Wonderful Life(1946) the director used cornflakes painted white as snow, and would drop them from high places like cranes and ladders.
This showed up fine on the cameras of the day, but was a significant problem, as the flakes created a crunching sound that interfered with the audio. Corn flakes aren’t exactly practical in today’s industry, especially to an amateur filmmaker.
But cornflakes are tame compared to previous methods of imitating this magic white fluff. The snow in The Wizard of Oz(1939) was achieved by using asbestos.
This debatably caused lung failure in Jack Haley Jr. who played the Tin Man. Asbestos snow was used in countless films from the 1920’s and for decades after it’s danger was discovered. One of the last uses of asbestos snow in movies was White Christmas(1954). After that, OSHA stepped in, and now it’s illegal to use asbestos in the workplace without proper safety measures.
Well, enough about how not to fake snow. Let’s talk about how to fake snow.
In this technological and safety-regulated day and age, if you want to create a blizzard on screen, all you have to do is use a snow machine and make “actual” snow. Ski resorts do this all the time. Of course, your machine will be smaller. Just place house fans under the machine to shoot it up into the sky and break it up.
Now I know what you’re thinking. Snow Machines are bank-breakers. And that can be true, depending on who you are. For big-time movie producers wanting to create a massive storm, you’re going to need a big one. But small-scale snow machines are around $60 a day.
This can still seem pricy, but there isn’t a better way to fake snow. Cheap snow replacements, as history taught us, look bad, take a long time to create and even longer to clean up. Add this the reality of lung cancer, and snow machines don’t seem that bad anymore.
However, the struggle is real, and if snow is a must, and money is nonexistent, pick up real snow from the ground and find a high place. Drop said snow from said high place. You may have to have a small frame, but if you’re that desperate, you can’t really complain.
Also, since snow usually falls on a snowy environment, to prevent the snow blending in with the background, you can use lights, mirrors, etc. If anything, increase the brightness for whiter snow.
#3: FOG
Fog is a cool effect because it can be used for a bunch of different things, not just faking an aspect of the environment. Fog is great because it can add depth to you shot, and diffuses light, and has a lot of aesthetic value. It’s commonly used to add suspense, but it’s been used in many more situations.
Fog machines are cheap enough, costing as little as $20. Fog machines are recommended for film fog because the fog will actually look real, and can be produced in large quantities. Just be frugal with your shots, because the more fog there is in the air, the less you can see it, unless of course that’s what you want.
Even cheaper alternatives for smaller scales include dry ice and water. We’ve all seen this in punch at halloween parties. It’s not too expensive to get the dry ice, and water is usually free in the developed world. This is fine for beginner films. Just be careful and don’t burn yourself or explode anything.
#4: WIND
Before I say anything else, watch this clip from Steamboat Bill Jr.(1928).
What you are beholding is a cyclone scene created by Buster Keaton. In this, people fly around, houses are torn apart, the wind is something physical to interact with, in a way almost comical. This was back when CGI was nonexistent, so the question pulls off: How did they do it?
Well in once sentence, they spent a third of a million dollars in today’s money to achieve this three minute sequence, and used a collection of strings, breakable sets, and six humongous wind fans.
This can show you what practical effects can accomplish. However, even though the shot’s almost a century old, this level of wind is still unrealistic for the average filmmaker. Don’t even let me get you started on the price.
However, odds are you aren’t trying to recreate a cyclone. Most wind is subtle, and used aesthetically (hair in the wind, anyone?).
House fans will do the trick here. Just point fan at subject when needed. There isn’t a precise way to do this, there are just some things to watch out for.
First, make sure you won’t hear the fan. Fans are noise. Noise isn’t good.
Second, if there’s wind in the foreground, there’s probably going to be wind in the background. For this reason, I recommend closer shots.
And lastly, just make the wind natural. Don’t have a random puff of wind appear for aesthetics. You have to have some wind throughout the scene on and off. You know what looks good, so make sure it doesn’t look bad.
#5: LIGHTNING
And finally, we have one of the grandest effects: good old lightning.
Most lightning will be just the light produced by the lightning. If you’re trying to produce the actual bolt, you may want to wait for a bigger budget, and a fancy CGI Software.
The strobing effect of lightning light can be produced with a big light, and a shudder, like the ones you see on windows. What you have to do is simply place it outside a window, and flash the light with the shutter mechanism.
Now comes the sound. The cheapest way to create sound is just to rip it from non-copyright YouTube videos. Try and find the best quality, and do your best to make it fit your film. Don’t worry about your audio and the visuals matching in this aspect, because in real life, the lightning doesn’t match the thunder, because light travels faster than sound.
I hope you enjoyed this post. Remember to use your head, and strive for perfection.
Brock Johnson 